


Brighter Days

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cuban Lance, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Keith and Shiro are Adoptive Siblings, Korean Keith, M/M, Minor Character Death, Minor Matt Holt/Shiro, lots of flashbacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2018-12-04 01:21:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11544480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "Keith you promised you'd marry me one day, what's the big deal in faking it for a week?""Lance we were eight."(A fake dating AU where Keith and Lance meet each other at age eight and grew up as best friends.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> since I took four years of French and zero years of Spanish everything in italicized and bold is supposed to be in Spanish because I don't want to embarrass myself.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "My sister died." Keith didnt mean for it to come out that bluntly. But he decided to trust him completely, and this was the only way he knew how.
> 
> "Hmm," Lance thought deeply, well as deep as a eight-year-old could, "You can have one of mine. I've got plenty of them."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is likely the shortest because i have no clue what the heck eight year olds do.  
> this is also more of a prologue in a sense because the actual story will be starting around college age.  
> also, when it was revealed that Lance is the youngest child I had already drafted the first and second chapters.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> **  
> **  
> _APRIL 13TH, 2018_ **  
> semi important edits, i edited this to fix references i made to make the timeline take place (where the story actually takes place) in 2016ish? than as opposed to in the future as it originally did. and i decided that i wanted to rewrite this story and continue it because i like the original story idea. Chapter Two is being completely rewritten, and i'm mostly done so it should be up in 4-6 hours at the most. : )**

**_Fourteen Years Ago - Age Eight_ **

Everyday (of the last three weeks) a little boy with pale skin and pink wind kissed cheeks rode past the yellow house on his old red bicycle. The house was a little ways down the street from the beach house his family owned and he liked riding his bike over here because it was close enough to smell the water from the beach but far enough that it wasn’t so loud. He couldn’t help but look at it, it’s one of those houses that looked like a home; lived in, but not in a bad way and it had a white picket-fence and a bunch of plants in the yard. 

Everyday the bike riding boy would see a boy playing in the front yard behind the white picket-fence, he had chubby cheeks and tan skin and bright blue eyes. The boy was usually playing with someone else, with enough familiar resemblance to assume they were his older and younger siblings.

However, the only company had was a small dog. An Akita, he saw a picture in book of dogs last week.  They're pretty cool dogs, well  _ all _ dogs are cool. The boy on the bike thought about what it’d be like to have a dog as he stared at the boy being chased around by the puppy. He was so lost in thought he didn’t see the large rock in front of his wheel. 

 

One second he was daydreaming what it’d be like to own a dog, (a husky, because those are his favorite) and the next he had lost control of his steering. The bike tipped over and his body slammed to the ground, he was left with the slow burning sting of scraped hands and knees. Luckily it wasn’t concrete, all the roads this close to the ocean were just pathways made of dirt and rocks.

"Whoa!" a voice came from behind him, "Are you okay?" The words thick with an accent the boy couldn’t place. 

"That's why Mama always says to wear a helmet when riding bikes." He deduced that is was the little boy from the yellow house speaking, the biggest hint being the feeling of a cold, wet dog nose pressing into the scraped palm of his hand,  “You aren’t dead,  _ are you  _ ?”

In an entirely melodramatic sense, he for a short moment wished he was dead, that’d be a far less embarrassing situation. (No it wouldn’t, death from falling off a bike?)  The boy was only eight but he had enough pride to be embarrassed, he could practically see the teasing smirk and hear the snickers from his older brother already. He could play dead, like they do in the movies. They’d take him to a hospital and he’d dramatically come back to life, a true christmas miracle. The two problems with that being that it’s the middle of summer and he absolutely hated hospitals. 

The boy’s family probably wouldn’t want a dead body in the street in front of their house either. He isn’t entirely sure how it works, but he’s certain there’s a lot of paperwork for finding a dead body. The dark haired boy pushed himself off the ground, his hands tingle but luckily weren’t bleeding they were bright pink and his knee was scraped open and stained with blood which made it look a lot worse than it actually is.

“Nope, not dead.” He finally responds to the boy, giving him a brief assuring look before it quickly changes to a hopeful one, “Can I pet your dog?”

“Sure, he loves to be petted.” The boy gave him a bright smile, like it was the most exciting thing he’s heard all day. (It was, his favorite thing about having a dog is when other people who don’t have a dog get to experience the wonderfulness through him.) 

That was all it took for the boy to give the small yipping puppy head scritches and was awarded with kisses, which he didn’t understand why dogs licking your face are called kisses but it’s enduring in the least. 

“Your dog is cool.” Socializing wasn’t really his forte but he’s pretty sure that was the highest praise he’s ever given anyone before. 

“Thanks, Obi is the coolest dog I know.” He said puffing out his chest with pride, his tan cheeks flushed red with toothy grin, well sorta toothy, he was missing one of his front baby teeth.

“His name is Oboe?”

“No, Obi, like Obi-Wan,” Cause that totally explains everything, noticing the others confused face the boy continues “From  Star Wars ?”

“I’ve never watched  Star Wars, ” He replies, Obi now completely in his lap trying to chew on the strings of sweater, it reminded him of the cat he used to have.

“We’ll watch them together, everyone has to watch  Star Wars once, I mean it’s space,” There was no arguing with that, space is cool, “And you can totally see that Anakin is better than Obi-Wan, ok?”

“…Ok.” The boy nods cautiously,  “I’m Keith.”

“Hi Keef, I'm Lance, we’re gonna be best friends now.”

"Keith. My name is Keith.” And then on second thought, “Ok. We can be best friends, but first do you have any band aids?”

“Yeah, I have stormtrooper ones.”

“What’s a stormtrooper?”

“Keith,  _ buddy  _ .”

 

And on that day, the boy on the red bike had met his best friend. Lance had always been a sociable kid, but there was no way he knew that asking that on that day he had met his best friend for the rest of his life. 

  
  


Keith slowly became a semi-permanent resident at the McClain house, six out of the seven days of the week, Keith was there.  On Sundays Lance’s family were at church and Keith’s family had their weekly family dinners with extended family. They ended up watching Star Wars, ( _ with Elena, she looked a lot like Lance)  _  Keith agreed with Lance that Anakin was a lot better than Obi, and Elena called him totally biased whatever that meant. (Which Older Keith, totally admits to.) 

Keith liked all of  Lance's family, it was slightly overwhelming from being with just Shiro and their dads, but the McClains were a really cool family. His oldest sibling Elena is thirteen and has bangs and listens to My Chemical Romance and watches movies with them. Then there older brother Alex who is eleven and skateboards and watches anime, Keith thought he was the coolest and watched Naruto with him on the rare occasion he and lance aren’t attached at the hip. There was also the twins, Malia and Mateo who are nine, they didn’t act anything like zack and cody, much to his disappointment, he didn’t even know twins could be a boy and a girl. Lance is the next born child, he's almost the same age as Keith, his birthday is coming soon, July 28th, and then he'll be eight. He also has a little brother Leo, he's only four and doesn't know a lot of English words, so he just pulls Keith's hair and points at stuff because he doesn't understand. Lance and Keith even heard Elena and Alex saying that their mom might be pregnant again. 

Lance’s mom was the nicest mom Keith had ever met, she made cookies and she kisses Keith on the head before he goes to sleep and always make sure that Keith feels included. And Lance’s dad had the coolest job, he’d come home at dinner and greet all the children (after two days Keith became a part of the routine) and tell stories about his day. He flies planes, which is like the coolest thing ever.

Lance had also met Shiro, and he thought that Shiro was the coolest person ever. Keith assured him that he is in fact very lame 'He likes Harry Potter and like Doctor Who, see very lame' and that he's the coolest.

As it slowly became the middle of the summer they became as close as they could be, Lance even went with Keith's family to the zoo and Keith had stayed the night and went to church. (He met Lance's Abuelita and all of his aunts and uncles.)  True to Lance’s word the two did become best friends. 

"Hey Keith," Lance poked at the boy sitting next to him, Keith was staring down at his ds screen paying the other no attention at all, "Hey, Hey Keith."

"What Lance?" He grumbled, he aggressively slams his finger down on the A button, "I'm trying to beat Bowser."

"Do you want to come to my birthday party?" Lance pokes at him again, this time his left cheek, touching one of the many fake freckles that were there. Earlier Lance had taken his sisters make-up and gave Keith a face full of freckles so they could match. It looked more like a bunch of polka dots but close enough. Keith finally looked up with the best glare any eight-year old could manage, which was surprisingly intimidating on him.  He immediately deflated at the sight of Lance giving him his big blue puppy eyes.

"Cause you're my best friend ya know, you kinda have to come." Lance added on with a big smile.

"Are there gonna be games?" Keith held a straight face, even though on the inside he was laughing, "Cause I won't come unless there are games." He was lying, he'd come to Lance's birthday party even if it was just a kiddy-pool and a single juice box.

"Well, Mama said we're going to the ocean, but I'm sure we could make up some of our own games.” He immediately perked up and slammed his fist onto his hand like he got the most brilliant idea in the world, “You could bring your swords and we can play Space Pirates in the water, that would be the coolest. And like I could be a mermaid, well a merman-”

“Whoa, whoa whoa. There aren’t any mermaids in Voltron, Lance. They’re in space.” Keith rolls his eyes, they had made their sword game a week ago - how could Lance forget that fast.

_ “In garden,” Lance exclaimed happily, pointing his foam sword at Keith. _

_ “That’s not how you say that idiot,” Keith said, lifting his sword either way. _

_ He lashes out at Lance, landing a hit on his extended arm holding the sword. It stumbles in his hand before he quickly retaliates, swinging towards Keith’s stomach but the other moves out of the way.  The two carry one carelessly swinging at each other and laughing before Lance finally calls for a break. _

_ “Hey Keith?” Lance asks, heavily breathing. _

_ “Ya know, you don’t have to say ‘Hey Keith’” He imitates his accent as he speaks, “every time you talk to me, Lance.” _

_ “Fine. Hey Keef,” The younger boy says with a laugh, “Is that better?” _

_ “No jerk,” Keith says bitterly, but he can’t help but laugh as he pushes Lance into the grass. He draws his sword and presses it onto his stomach. _

_ “Any last words blue?” _

_ “Tell my dog I love him.” Lance chokes out pretending he’s dying, he twitches twice and clutches his stomach just below Keith’s sword before letting out a deep dramatic dying breath  _ .

_ His fake death lasts a total of 30 seconds, of Keith pretending to mourn him and then they both are giggling as Lance’s mom decided then would be a good time to let Obi out. He ran straight towards the two and jumped right on top of Lance. _

_ “Oof, Obi werh eeetin iwr enn mai oouf” Lance yelled happily from under the dog as Keith laughed so hard his stomach hurt. _

_ “Oh no!” The raven-haired boy exclaimed, “It’s a rare space werewolf, they can bring people back to life with their saliva. My enemy the blue paladin has been brought back to life.” _

_ Lance had only heard half of Keith’s spiel between Obi’s happy barking and his Mama telling Obi to get off of him, but he was pretty sure he was alive again. He jumped to his feet and grabbed his sword before attacking again. _

_ “You can’t stop me red, I will win!” He shouted and swung the foam sword into Keith’s. _

_ The two pirates, Captain Red and Captain Blue were fighting for the coolest spaceship that had a life supply of candy and pizza. Lance named it Kaltenecker, but Keith thinks that's stupid so he calls it the Raven. _

“Dude.”  Lance says breaking him out of his thoughts, he looks all wide-eyed and the most serious Keith has ever seen, “There’s definitely mermaids in space.”

“No way, they live in water. There’s no water in space.”

“Yeah, there is Keith! Mermaids are totally in space that’s why people can never find them.”

“Boys!”Elena shouts from down the hall, “Shiro’s here to get Keith.”

“You got lucky this time Lance.” Keith glares as he makes his exit.

“If there’s space werewolves then there are totally mermaids in space Keef!”

  
  


Lance’s birthday party was two weeks later, and there were in fact games, but apparently Keith wasn’t enough for Lance because there was also some fat kid named Hunk. Keith hated him. He didn’t like Lance having other friends and spent a good portion of the party sulking by Shiro.

“Stupid Lance, and his stupid friends, and this stupid party.” He grumbled under his breath arms crossed over his chest, glaring out into the ocean where Lance currently ran along the shore with Hunk. “Hunk is even a stupid name.”

“Keef is a pretty stupid name too.” Shiro says from beside him.

“Shut up Takashi, my name isn’t Keef!” He attempts to push the boy away from him, but Shiro is twelve and twice his height.

“Just because Lance has other friends doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to be friends with you anymore Keith.”

“Yes it does!” He shouts, his faces turning red as he speaks, “That’s what it always means. I’m being replaced by him.”

Shiro sighed, his parents explained to him many times how Keith’s brain works and he’s been trained for this moment. “How about we go ask Lance?”

“No Takashi!” But the older boy ignored him and was already walking towards the playing kids.

“Takashi!”

Lance looked at Shiro skeptically as he finally stood in front of him, “Why is Keith calling you Takashi?”

“Because that’s my name.”

 

“I thought your name was Shiro,” Lance says, looking even more skeptical. Hunk stands besides him shyly.

“It’s a nickname, did you really think my name was Shiro Shirogane?  _ seriously  _ .”

“ **_I don’t trust you_** .” The boy responds in spanish, seeing Keith’s visibly upset face.

“ **_Neither I, you_** .”

Lance gasps before pointing a finger accusingly, “Keith! Quick, my sword. Shiro is a spy!”

And just like that, the crisis was avoided. Well, for the time being, two hours later after Hunk had left and they swam long enough to look like prunes. Keith had decided that he had enough swimming experience for his entire lifetime, Lance wanted to continue swimming on the other hand but he couldn't oppose to the others offer of adventure.

“Paging Captain Red, I think I spot a cave. Over.” Lance says into a shell pretending it’s a walkie-talkie.

“Lance, we don’t need to walkie-talkie, we’re right next to each other.” If any eight year old could make you feel ridiculous, it’s Keith, but upon seeing the look of disappointment on Lance’s face he adds a horrible crackling effect and  “Over.”

They carry forth on their journey into the cave, though Lance knows he probably should've asked for permission first and it's kinda dark and wet in here, but Keith doesn't seem afraid so Lance definitely isn't afraid. Even though it's really,  _ really  _ dark and was that a bat?

Ok not a bat, wait are those footsteps, those aren't his footsteps, he quickly grabs Keith's arm and holds him to a stop. The footsteps continue.

"Keef I think this cave is haunted." Lance says wide-eyed and color draining from his skin, "we need to get out of here now."

"Chill out Lance, it's totally not haunted." He says rolling his eyes, there's never been an eight year old who rolled their eyes as much as Keith. It was definitely Shiro's fault. It was then that he heard the footsteps and got a little wide-eyed himself, before shaking his head.

"It can't be a ghost, they don't have feet. They float duh." He says matter-of-factly now looking smug again. 

"Then what if it's like mothman or something?" 

Instead of looking freaked out, like he should have and how Lance currently did, he broke into a look of excitement. He grinned wildly and turned towards the sound of the footsteps. 

"Let's go find mothman!" He shouted excitedly and ran off in the direction of the footsteps. 

"Keith no!" Lance shouted after him grabbing his hand and running along with him. Better to be eaten by mothman with Keith than to be lost all alone, ok maybe not.

As they got closer the slowed down, and took to walking on the tips of their toes. Lance's heart was beating wildly without abandon, he could barely hear anything else over it. But he assumed he was breathing heavily as Keith silently shushed him.

They got closer and the noise was right in front of them. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. What could be big that it made that much noise, Lance's eyes brimmed with tears and he tightly gripped Keith's hand in his own. Another crash, another step closer then 

"BOO!"

The boys shrieked in terror, climbing onto each other all the while trying to run away. Resulting with them both crashing to ground, rocks digging into the bare skin of their backs but they could feel a thing except terror. Well that is, until  _ mothman _ started laughing. Lance knew that laugh, that annoyingly evil cackling witch laugh. 

"Elena! You-you-you big jerk!" Lance shouted as he stood up, his older sister stood less than a feet away, bent at the waist laughing to her heart’s content. 

"God, you should've seen your guys faces, a work of genius." She said in between laughs, as Keith still laid on the ground. Probably embarrassed.

"You're the worst!" He pointed an accusing finger at her, "How did you even find us?"

"Please, like Mama would trust you and Keith alone in a cave." She had a point there. "Speaking of Keith, are you okay kid?"

"Leave me here to die, I wish to be eaten by mothman."

Elena quietly mumbled 'mood' underneath her breath as Lance retorted "you said mothman doesn't eat people."

"Sisters are the worst." Lance says later as their sitting in his bedroom, in pjs and sticky medicine on their back to clean the cuts. "You’re lucky you don't have a sister."

Keith stayed quiet for a moment, maybe he should tell Lance. He is his best friend right, and Shiro says it's important to tell people you love the truth. 

"My sister died." Keith didn't mean for it to come out that bluntly. But he decided to trust him completely, and this was the only way he knew how.

"Hmm," Lance thought deeply, well as deep as a eight-year-old could, "You can have one of mine. I've got plenty of them."

Keith just stared at him surprised, this was the first time someone didn't give him a sad look, or ask how it happened.

"You can take Elena, I like Malia better. She's not as annoying." Lance add-on when Keith didn't reply.

After staring at Lance confused for as long as he would let him, he cautiously opened his mouth, before closing it again.

"Idiot, you can't just give someone your sister," Keith finally said, deciding to pretend this was as normal as all of their other conversations, "you only get new sisters by marriage or adoptions."

"Hmm," Lance looked stumped, before his eyes lit up with a bright idea, "I can't adopt you since we're the same age, but we can get married right?"

Lance smiled at Keith so brightly, and Keith had never felt more happy than to have him as a friend.

"Yeah, Lance. We can get married."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo go talk to me about season three on tumblr: cosmicallygay.tumblr.com


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel really bad for this. but it’s just where I’m at. 
> 
> so if you’re one of the original readers you’d know that I wrote to chapter three and stopped because I lost motivation for this fanfic.
> 
> but now it’s completely different.
> 
> I don’t want to write fanfic for voltron anymore. i’m just so done with this fandom. 
> 
>  
> 
> I will continue to write, I’m actually writing multiple bnha and yoi fanfics right now. 
> 
> all of my voltron fanfics will also be orphaned by July. I may or may not post a little more of this story by then. Not entirely sure. 
> 
> I just didn’t want to do this to y’all again without an actual explanation.

"We're graduating!" Lance yelled victoriously, for what felt the billionth time in the last hour, "I did it, I graduated high school."

"Not yet buddy, you've got to wait until they give you your diploma," Shiro said, laying his hand on Lance's shoulder with a soft smile, the cyborg arm as Lance's little siblings had taken to saying and it kind of just stuck. He just recently returned from college for their graduation. The Shirogane-Kogane and McClain family were out for a dinner in celebration, and as the night wound down, it ended up just being Shiro, Keith, and Lance left. The three walking home together, and though they didn't try or do anything out of their ordinary behavior, Shiro still managed to feel like he was out of place.

Lance smiled at Shiro brightly, he can't break completely from the hero-worship he had for Shiro since he was a child, no matter how hard he and Keith try. ("Lance you've literally seen him drink a bottle of egg yolks, who does that? That's fucking weird." "Weird, but _hardcore"._ "You've seen him cry over Danny Phantom." "Look, sensitive guys are amazing.")

"I don't know why you're saying like it's a big deal Lance, there was no question ever if you were going to graduate." Keith said giving him a smug expression, Lance knew that on the inside he was just as excited as him, but ten years of knowing Keith shows that he will always play the cool guy when given the chance.

"You're right, there was never a question, you on the other hand..." Shiro says with a laugh, nudging him away with his shoulder.

"Ha ha ha, very funny." He says with a perfected ratio of sarcasm and bite he mastered in his honorary emo phase, which everyone likes to tell him he still hasn't left, he may have seemed his usual level of angst ridden teenager, but Shiro could see through it as he nervously toyed with the handmade blue bracelet that fit snugly on his wrist. He's had it for the last four years, and hasn't taken it off once, it's slowly became another anxious habit he had. Shiro put his hand on his shoulder, as he thought back to when he had received said bracelet from his best friend.

_"Here." Lance held out his hand, containing a horrendously wrapped present that looked like a lump of blue wrapping paper with a golden star sticker on top._

_Keith stared suspiciously, his birthday wasn't for another month, and it's long since passed Christmas, the thirteen year old had managed to earn enough money to buy Lance the stupid video game he was getting a boner over for months, and Lance had gotten Keith a leather jacket and throwing stars (which Hunk was better at than both of them combined)._

_"You're a little early for my birthday Lance."  He finally speaks taking it out of his hand, "But you knew that, you're always more excited for my birthday than I am. What is this for?"_

_"Uh," He scratched the back of his neck for a second, before finally deciding on "Our friendiversary. Ya know, serious business. It's just like you to forget."_

_"It's February, Lance. I didn't live here until April. We didn't even meet until June."_

_"Just shut up and accept a gift Keef." He grumbles under his breath and Keith takes that as his cue to finally open it, inside was a blue bracelet made from string, tied in intricate notes and as he stares Lance decides to keep talking, "Izzy and Sophie wanted to make friendship bracelets so they asked me to help so I made one for you too. Cause I know like when you're anxious you like to fiddle things in your fingers and well since you had to cut your hair since the incident, I thought you could use this instead."  He rambled off helplessly but the other showed no signs of talking._

_Keith could think of plenty of things to say, 'thank you' or 'I didn't know you paid enough attention to know my stims' or literally anything but all that came out was "It's blue."_

_Lance let out an awkward laugh, the only awkward thing about the thirteen year old. Where Keith had braces, and constellations of pimples, and a recently developed horrible haircut, Lance had pretty smiles and prettier eyes, and a beautiful array of freckles. It was devastatingly unfair.  "Yeah, mine's red. I thought that this way we could like always have a part of each other."_

_Always have a part of each other. Always. Have. A. Part. Of. Each. Other. Keith hasn't felt this emotionally vulnerable since his heart to heart with his parents when Shiro moved out for college. He wanted to say thank you, he truly wanted to, but his incapability of actually expressing his emotions made him reply in a equally snarky and soft tone. "Lance, that's gay."_

_"Yah, so are you and I don't say anything about it." Lance said instinctively, and then his face broke into panic and both of them stood there red faced, for completely different reasons._

_"You know?"' Keith squeaked out once the blaring warning signs had finally stopped ringing in his head, Lance didn't sound disgusted or like he was gonna deem him unfit to be his best friend, or that he was gonna tell him he was gonna go to hell._

_"Yeah, ma told me I was supposed to wait for you to tell me yourself, I'm sorry for outing  you.... to me?"_

_And just like that the calm was gone again, and Keith suddenly wanted to die._

_"Your mom knows too! How?" Keith screeched panicked, luckily they were in the woods behind his house and no one could hear him, and Lance though taller couldn't take Keith in a fight._

_"Alex told her, y'know he knows you had a crush on him right."_

_Yup, this is it. This is how Keith A. Kogane dies. Of embarrassment and being gay. Tragic._

_"Look, you can't get mad at me, we wouldn't be in this situation if I didn't make you that bracelet." Lance says matter factly, not realizing how badly he phrased that sentence, completely setting the blame on himself. When Keith pointed that out, he quickly added "I wouldn't have had to make it you didn't catch your hair on fire."_

_"I didn't mean to! I didn't think he was gonna catch on fire either," The other retorted, though he sounded defensive he felt a lot happier than he has been in awhile, he was glad Lance didn't make a big deal out of it, like he did with pretty much everything else in his life._

_"I can't believe you killed my hamster, rest in peace Kaltenecker."_

_"He hated me, and he won in the end anyways. He killed my hair."_

  


"I am proud of you Keith," Shiro says it then, and he says it again after Keith, Lance, Hunk, Pidge and the rest of the graduating class of 2026 walk across the stage.

Lance though completely pumped to be moving out on his own (not really on his own, he, Hunk, and Keith are rooming together and Shiro and Matt live down the hall to make sure the three don't accidentally die.) he was equally part anxious and depressed about leaving his family behind. He spent a lot longer in his mother's arms than what was probably societally acceptable for his age, but this woman brought him to this world and he would give her the world in return. He rubbed her back as they spoke in soft hushed tones, not that Lance would be embarrassed of being vulnerable, he valued being a sensitive guy, he just knew if he'd talk any louder he'd break into tears.

Up until this point, the longest he's ever been away from his mother was the weekend he and Keith 'ran-away'. Lance not quite understanding the concept of running away told his mother that they were running away to stay in their cave, she helped him pack a bag of food and water, and clothes. The two ten year olds stayed there for five days, unbeknownst to them being checked in on every hour by literally everyone. Everyone knew they were there but the Shirogane's wanted to let Keith get it out of his system when he was still young and still within arms length.

But now as he stands in his new apartment, hugging his mother goodbye — the last of the parents to go, it finally hits him. That this is really happening.

After they finally pulled apart, she gave a smile to the two boys standing awkwardly shifting their gaze. Hunk is still not quite out of his shy phase and Keith is quite awkward around affection.

"Take care of him," She said with a warm smile, the kind of smile that filled all three of them up with a sense of security and childhood memories of cookies and homemade meals.

"Yes ma'am." Keith says smiling back.

"I was talking to Hunk, hijo. I don't trust you with a dog," She pulls Keith into a tight hug, which he gladly returns. He may not be a touchy-feely person, but the McClains were always a soft spot for him.

"I respect that Rosa, but you have to admit that Anakin is a handful." He responds with a cheeky grin, "Lance is a lot easier to take care of, and he doesn't shit on the floor."

Rosa laughs and says "Most of the time."

"Hey!" Lance shouts, coming out from the kitchen with a bag of chips in his hand, "It was one time, I was nine and I literally had the stomach flu."

"Sure Jan." Hunk says taking some of chips from him.

"Don't use outdated memes at me Hunk."

"DoNt uSE oUtDaTeD mEmEs aT mE hUnK."

"How the hell are you doing that with your voice?"  Lance eyes him skeptically, what the hell did he and Pidge do when no one is around.

"Language." Rosa said smacking the back of Lance's head before pulling Hunk into a hug also.

Lance always the smart-ass smirks and repeats the sentence in Spanish. As she pulls away from Hunk, she gives her son the look, the look that was received with the threat of being grounded or worse. (Rosa had once grounded Lance and Keith from seeing each other for a week, it didn't last the entire week because both parents parties were getting irritated by the two.)

It was after she left and the three were sitting on their black leather couch staring at blank tv, Lance sitting in the middle with Keith to his right and Hunk to his left. He swung his arm over Keith's shoulder and spoke proudly, "Captain Blue and Captain Red are taking on the world together."

“What about me?” Hunk says with an offended huff, over the years he's learned if he wanted to get a say in Keith and Lance world, he actually had to say it.   

“You my beautiful man," Lance says turning to him and wrapping his other arm around his shoulder, "are the handsome prince we're fighting for.”

“Mostly your cooking though." Keith adds with a smirk.

The three sat together in peaceful silence, like the ending of a tv episode before Lance finally broke the silence.

“Hey where’s Pidge?”

“She’s not coming up till tomorrow, her parents are still a little iffy about a 16 year old girl living with men.”

“Matt’s her brother, and Shiro’s pretty much everyone’s dad.” Keith said scrunching his nose as he spoke, his confused face.

“Yeah, but..” Hunk trailed off, the Holts of all people have plenty of reason at not trusting them. They’ll probably burn the house down.”

“Nah, if Pidge is involved, they’ll burn the world down.”

"Did you just see what I just saw?" Keith sounded and looked rightfully horrified, Lance to his side looked just as bad. The two looked like they saw a ghost, well no if they had seen a ghost Lance would look like he was gonna cry and Keith would look completely elated. This was much much worse than a ghost.

"I wish I hadn't I'm gonna need to bleach my brain, and my eyes," Lance says avoiding eye contact.

It was only two months into their college experience and they were both certain that it was completely ruined. Just as Keith was finally  starting to enjoy it there. The leaves were changing colors and it rained a lot more and his emo heart was content with the fall aesthetic, and Lance loved the PSLs and the fact that there was a starbucks on campus. But all of it was ruined.

There are few things in life that could leave literally anyone traumatized, and this one falls in the walking in on your parents category, but it wasn't his parents. Much, much, worse. Takashi Shirogane had his hand in Matt Holt's pants, and his tongue in his mouth, and Lance and Keith both felt like they were gonna need a sixteen-month therapy plan to be able to get over that entire experience.

"We can't tell anyone right?" The older of the two, turns to stare at the younger, both knowing that they most definitely shouldn't, but most definitely will tell everyone. Their everyone is limited to — Pidge, Hunk, and Matt and Shiro's friend Allura.

"Right."

 **TheTailor** added **Emo2TheExtremo** to the groupchat.   
  
**TheTailor** added **PidgeonKing** to the groupchat.

 **TheTailor** added **ImALeg** to the groupchat.

 **TheTailor** added **SpacePrincess** to the groupchat.   
  
**TheTalior** renamed the groupchat "OMGOMOMGOMG HOLY SHIT"   
  
**Emo2TheExtremo** : Lance this is why you're not allowed to get on my phone.

 **TheTailor** : shut up Keith, ur not important rn

 **Emo2TheExtremo** : it's kinda my news to tell.

 **TheTailor** : no???? it isn't???

 **PidgeonKing** : stop being gay and tell us whatever the hell the news is

 **PidgeonKing** : unless there isn't news and Lance is just being fucking dramatic again.

 **TheTailor** : Katherine,,, u r like 7,,, watch ur mouth

 **PidgeonKing** : Lance, my birth name isn't even Katherine,,, like I'm down with Katie but like my name just isn't Katherine pls.

 **PidgeonKing** : I'm taking this as there's no news, Hunk?   
  
**ImALeg** : I'm not at the apartments, I have no clue what they're doing.   
  
**SpacePrincess** : uhm, what am I here for?   
  
**TheTailor** : Sup 'Lura, it includes u, but now that ur all present.

 **TheTailor** : …

 **Emo2TheExtremo** : shiro and matt are together

 **TheTailor** : sH I RO AND MATT ARE FUCKING ////

 **TheTailor** : fuck

 **TheTailor** : fuck you Keef.   
  
**PidgeonKing** : … so you don't have news.   
  
**SpacePrincess** : lmao.   
  
**ImALeg** : Buddy, are you serious right now?   
  
**TheTailor** : what do you mean "don't have news"   
  
**TheTailor** : YES!!! IM SERIOUS!!! KEITH WAS THERE WITH ME!!!

 **TheTailor** : he went to the bathroom, take my word for it.

 **TheTailor** : wait,,, he left his phone.

 **Emo2TheExtremo** changed their user to **ILuvURawrXD**   
  
**PidgeonKing** : bye you're really for real right now,,, this is wild

 **PidgeonKing** : like I knew you were fucking oblivious but damn ,,,,   
  
**ILuvURawrXD** : fuck you Lance.   
  
**ILuvURawrXD** : he's serious, I saw way more than I ever needed to. I could have went my whole life without seeing that.

 **PrincessAllura** : ... should we tell them?   
  
**ImALeg** : Idk, this is kind of pathetic really   
  
**PidgeonKing** : bye gkskfkekf you too Keith   
  
**PidgeonKing** : wild.   
  
**PidgeonKing** : Shiro and Matt have been dating for like 3 years.

 **TheTailor** : what?

 **TheTailor** : I thought they were just bros,,,,

 **TheTailor** : what?????   
**TheTailor** : like,, they act no different than me and Keith,,, just less angst & arguing.

 **ILuvURawrXD** : you guys broke Lance,,,, he's just staring at his phone.

 **ILuvURawrXD** : I mean, I expected it, just  it's one thing to see for myself. Quite vividly.

 **PidgeonKing** : doesn't like shiro talk to you about Matt,,, cause Matt sure as hell never shuts up about 'takashi'

 **ILuvURawrXD** : … everything makes sense now.   
  
**ILuvURawrXD** : jfkdkdkskckdkfkgkkskfg

 **ILuvURawrXD** : update: I have never in my fucking life, seen Lance so serious, he just looked up and said "Keith, are we secretly dating? Is everything I know about bros no longer true? are you my boyfriend? "

"Keith!" Lance yells exasperated, he slaps the phone out of his hand, ignoring the glare he received and the loud noise of the screen hitting the the wood tiled floors, "Stop laughing at me, are we dating?"

"No, Lance, we aren't dating." Keith responds completely annoyed. "We haven't even done anything couple like?"

"Bro, we cuddle," Lance gives him a pointed look, as if to say 'try and tell me I'm wrong'.

"Lance, you cuddle with everyone." He did, in fact, tell him he was wrong, with an eye roll and he reached for his phone.

"We go on dates all the time." His hand is smacked away the next comment, just like Lance to demand all of his attention.

"Hanging out and dates aren't the same thing."

"Movies, cafes, concerts, Keith, you literally went to the vet with me." Lance looked more and more completely mind-blown the longer he talked, at this point Keith wouldn't be surprised if his head quite literally blew up.

"People don't go on dates to the vet," He huffs out with a laugh.

"Oh my god, you're right." The problem should've been solved there, spoiler, it was not. Lance agreed with Keith, but just not in the way he should've, "We're not dating, we're fucking married."

“Lance…” Keith sighs, “What the ever loving Jesus, Joseph, and Mary are you fucking talking about?”

“Everyone always says we act like a married couple, I just didn’t realize how serious they were being.”

“We aren’t just magically married because someone says we fight like we’re married, we haven't even kissed.”  As soon as the words left his mouth, Lance gave him a pointed look to wait for the memory to finally come back to him.

 

_“So what’s it like,” Lance says one day as they lie in Keith’s bed, “Kissing guys?”_

_Keith looks up at him, startled and then turns back to his homework, “I don’t know Lance, do your work.”_

_“You don’t know, as in you’ve never kissed a guy, or as in you’ve never kissed anyone ever?” Lance looked smug, now that he thought about it, he knows Lance knew the answer to that question. There was no way Keith had ever kissed anyone and not tell his best friend in the whole wide world about it._

_Keith just ignores him, well he tries as hard as he can, but he knows his face is completely red now and could even feel the heat at the top of his ears, which were still visible from the haircut of the Kaltenecker incident._

_“What did you get for number 6?” He tries to change the subject, making sure to raise his voice slightly to give him a subtle-hint to let it go._

_“I’m taking that as you’ve never kissed someone.” Hint, not received. Leave it to I have no boundaries especially with my best friend Lance McClain to continue to push when Keith wanted to be pulled out of the situation. “C’mon, I'm not gonna make fun of you Keith. You’re literally my best friend bro, I would never.”_

_Keith raised an eyebrow, as if say ‘that I can list countless times that you’ve made fun of me’, which he could. But it was in no way harmful, or at least not purposefully so, it’s just the way their friendship works. Lance nods as a ‘that’s fair’ and climbs onto the bed beside him._

_“I’ve had my first kiss,”_ _He says as he lays down on top of Keith’s papers like they’re not even there. “It was with Rosie Clarke, pretty sure I didn’t do it right, but her chapstick tasted like sugar cookies.”_

_“Yes, I know, Lance. You’ve told me multiple times.” Keith isn’t jealous. Keith is not jealous._

_“Yeah, you’re my best friend I’m supposed to tell you these things, just like you’re supposed to tell me things. Didn’t Jenny say you needed to work on developing relationships or something.” Jenny did in fact tell Keith that, how Lance knew what he and his therapist talk about is beside him. (At age 17, Keith finds out that his mom relays anything she deems IKI, ‘important Keith info’, to Lance.)_

_“No Lance, I haven’t kissed anyone,” he blushes heavily, and adds with venom, “Now get off my stuff so I can finish my homework first. Some of us have to work to keep our grades up.”_

_“Fine,” He sighs, but then his face goes smug, “But first,”_

_Keith waits for him to continue then ultimately realizes it’s one of his dramatic moments and he deems a what necessary, he plays into it._

_“Kiss me.”_

_“What!” This what wasn’t played into, a completely wholehearted face of confusion and anger came along with it. “Lance I'm not gonna kiss you, go explore your sexuality with someone else,”_

_Lance rolls his eyes and makes no effort to move, “It’s not to explore my sexuality. Lance McClain is 100% straight, all for the ladies. This is me helping my bro get his first kiss, now pucker up.”_

_“No. Absolutely not.” Keith continues to object, ranting off no in every way and language he knows, before without him realizing, Lance effectively shuts him up._

_As far as kissing goes, it wasn't bad, well Keith didn’t have anything to compare it to except Katie and Matt’s great aunt that always goes for the lips no matter how old you are now._

_It was pretty awkward, if Keith really thought about it. It was just the feeling of Lance’s soft lips against his chapped ones, not moving just sitting there._

_“There, your first kiss, well at least the first step.” Lance said once he pulled away._

_“First step?”_

 

“We don’t even have sex.” Keith supplied after realizing, that they had kissed. Lance was his first kiss, first french-kiss, first time making out, and first time getting to second base.

“You know who don’t have sex?” Lance smirked challengingly, “Married people.”

“Then where do babies come from?”

He rolls his eyes in response and states as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world, “People get married to hide the fact that they got knocked up.”

“Lance, you’re the fifth child, explain that then.”The raven haired boy points out.

It should not be that hard to convince someone that you aren’t married. He really shouldn’t be having these problems. At all.

“Married people only fuck to procreate, as two males we cannot procreate. Boom, no sex.” He throws his hands wide in the air as if he just scored some imaginary touchdown.

“Look just because we act like we’re married doesn’t mean we’re actually married.”

“Whatever you say, baby!” Lance shouts as he walks away from the couch, taking the last note as if he won the conversation.

  


It wasn’t until months later when that and crept into Lance’s mind again, it was just after winter break, it was fucking freezing everywhere and the snow that should look beautiful was piss-yellow and had black stains, from dirt and people walking their dogs.

He sat safely inside from the cold with a cup of hot cocoa that was more whipped cream than hot chocolate. He was bundled up in an Altea Prep hockey team jersey, that shirogane across the back, Shiro had left it with Keith before he left for college and Lance often stole it. He was working on his final group project for Psychology, he was paired with a girl named Nyma who was nice and quite cute.

And because Lance can’t risk flirting with anything with a pulse, he may have accidentally flirting with her throughout the day. It started off pure enough, but when Nyma didn’t look uncomfortable or immediately blow him off he took it up a notch.

“You know Nyma, I actually quite like you,” He said with a smirk, “Oh wait, Freudian slip. Not you, your mother.”

She laughs and Lance feels a welt of pride bloom in his chest, there's nothing he loves more in life than making people happy.

“I have to admit that was pretty funny,” She smiles back at him, throwing her blonde hair over her shoulder (that’s definitely flirting right, holy shit) “But if it’s Freud, wouldn’t you say ‘my mother.’”

“Ah, you got me there.” He says with a wink.

And it goes on like that for a while, subtle flirting turning into extremely non-subtle flirting. Turning to Lance accidentally going too far.

“Uh, Lance?” Nyma says awkwardly looking like she’d rather be anywhere but here, “You know I have a boyfriend right.”

He grimaces, of course she has a boyfriend. Lance has met Rolo many of times, and had no doubt in mind that he could definitely kick his ass. Well he would attempt to, Keith has been bulking with Shiro for no other reason besides that he can. Keith. _Keith._

He looks at the red hand woven bracelet sitting proudly on his wrist, ‘just because we act like married doesn’t mean we’re actually married’ drowns out every other thought in his head then words are coming out before he can even filter them.

“Haha, cool. I’m married.” Ladies and Gents, Lance super chill in all situations, literally said haha instead of actually laughing. He had no time to regret it because Nyma was giving a pointed look to the lack of a wedding ring on his finger, and she was pretty sure he’s only 19.

“Well, not actually married. I mean come on, I’m not even 20. Only engaged, but I’m just so excited to y’know?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Keith I need you to marry me."  
  
  
Anyone in the right state of mind (or an at least a decent state of mind) would at least be a little shocked at such a brash and bold apparent marriage proposal, Keith Kogane however was not in the right state of mind, he was 40 hours deep without sleep because of his winter final. His hair was tied up in a messy bun and he walked around in a pair of sweatpants that were Lance’s and covered in a copious amount of suspicious stains. His bare chest and arms were covered with random ink stains and the bracelet on his wrist was soaked with with his spit, and looked a lot more frayed than it had in years. So yeah, Keith definitely wasn’t in the right state of mind.   
  
  
“Buy me pizza first.” he says giving Lance a look of desperation then looks back at his laptop screen, Lance genuinely wonders if he knows it’s blank.   
  
  
“Keith, buddy, did you sleep?” He asks in response, approaching the other steadily with a hand held up , the same way you would a frightened kitten.   
  
  
“Yes.” He says with angry huff, “I’m not a three year old you don’t need to check on me.”   
  
  
“When did you sleep?” Lance retorts, before adding “Yes I do, Keith. I literally still have to text you to take your meds every morning.”   
  
  
“Just before Shiro came over earlier.” He looks at Lance owlishly, (knowing Keith's sense of time, "just before" could be anywhere between ten minutes and ten hours) He then blinks twice in quick succession, as if suddenly remembering something, “Oh, also. Tell him I need a refill.”   
  
  
“Shiro hasn’t been here since yesterday morning Keith! That’s at least 30 hours!”   
  
  
That conversation gets put off in favor of pizza and cuddles, by the time Hunk gets back to their apartment Lance is halfway through the first season of Guardians of The Galaxy, Keith sprawled across his lap freshly showered and smelling like Lance (his shampoo, his body wash, even his shaving cream, it was a nice smell on Keith.). A cozy blue knitted blanket from Lance’s abuelita covered them up, mostly, one of Keith’s sock clad feet hung over the side of the couch.   
  
  
“Sup dude, you up for some Pratt and Pizza?” Lance offers with a smile, “Well, more Pratt than pizza cause there's only a couple slices left, but I can definitely restart the movie.”

 

Hunk gives a shrug and throws his bag on the floor and takes a seat in the recliner. It’s not until the end of the movie before anyone talks again, beside snide commentary, and singing along.

“Oh, hey, is there a reason that Nyma keeps asking me who you’re with?” Hunk asks and Lance slowly pulls the cover over himself wishing it was Harry Potter’s freaking invisibility cloak so he could just disappear, “I didn’t respond cause, a) I didn’t think you were with anyone, and b) I didn’t know if this was one of those ‘I panicked and did something really stupid moments.”

B, the correct answer is definitely b. This seems like an excellent opportunity to come clean and confess to someone what he did, and the words are almost leaving his mouth, ‘B, yeah, I definitely panicked’, when the sleeping boy snuggled closer to him, and all that left his mouth was “Keith.”

You ever take a bad situation and see a way out and then instead make it five hundred times worse, Lance is the master of that.

“Wait, really?” Hunk, god bless him, his entire face lit up as he asked, and if Lance was any less prideful and wouldn’t do anything for his friends he would’ve told the truth then, but seeing that smile he couldn’t say no.

He nods and rubs a hand through Keith’s hair, who leans into his touch and it reminds him a stupid amount of the cat they used to hide in their treehouse. “Yeah, but you can’t tell anyone. We’re not ready to tell anyone and I didn’t even mean to tell Nyma but-”

 

“You can’t keep your mouth shut and let it slip to Nyma, sounds like a classic Lance move.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IF YOU DID NOT MAKE SURE YOU READ THE NOTES AT THE TOP! 
> 
> main tumblr : cosmicallygay.tumblr.com  
> simblr (i’m lame) : beeberries.tumblr.com  
> wattpad that I rarely use : @noahfense


End file.
